In a scathing indictment of military system of justice
in general and senior serving and retired Indian Air Force officers in
particular, the Gauhati High Court has quashed all disciplinary proceedings
against a decorated Air Commodore who was framed on false charges of having an affair with junior officer's wife for having pointed out
corruption in the construction of an airbase for Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft in
Assam.
The Gauhati High Court has severely criticised the role of a
former Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Air Command, Air Marshal S
Varthman, as well as the present Commandant of National Defence Academy, Air
Marshal KS Gill, for the “abuse and misuse” of the “power and machinery” of the
air force in the framing of the officer who tried to stem the corruption in the
airbase which was to house the frontline fighter aircraft of the IAF.
While Air Marshal Varthman has now retired from service, Air
Marshal Gill was earlier posted as Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) of Eastern
Air Command in the rank of Air Vice Marshal and was accused by Air Commodore Mrigendra
Singh of not acting on his complaints of poor quality of work in the air base.
Air Commodore Mrigendra Singh had been posted as Air Officer
Commanding Air Force Station Chabua in Assam which was to station
Sukhoi-30 MKI fighters and major works of construction for this project were
on. He found that the quality of work was sub-standard and complained to his
superiors numerous times to no avail.
In the meantime engines of four Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft were
damaged because of the substandard quality of work and this caused a loss of
crores of rupees to the exchequer.
Air Commodore Singh alleged in his petition that even though
there was a nexus between the contractor and the then Air Officer
Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Air Command, he was finally able to get the
contractor blacklisted. All his efforts were allegedly not appreciated by the
top brass and he was falsely accused of sexually exploiting his junior
officers’ wives.
A Court of Inquiry was later instituted against the officer
for and phone call records of one lady who was falsely accused of having an
improper relationship were also illegally procured by air force officers.
The Gauhati high court found that various irregularities
were committed by the air force before and during the course of the inquiry and
that the officer was deliberately targeted.
The high court has said in its judgement that, ”The mala fide origin of the whole
Court of Inquiry and the disciplinary proceedings is apparent from a cursory
look at the time-line inasmuch as it was after the petitioner’s complaints that
the so-called anonymous letters started materializing out of nowhere and in
March-April, 2012, discreet inquiries were initiated and after the petitioner’s
final complaint, in May, 2012, seeking enquiry into sub-standard construction
work at the Airbase, at Chabua, the petitioner was posted to Jaipur in July
and, within a week thereafter, the Court of Inquiry was convened”.
The role of the Armed Forces Tribunal’s Gauhati Bench has
also come in for criticism by the Gauhati High court which observed that the AFT
bench had passed orders which were “illegal” and “not sustainable in law” while
granting no relief to Air Commodore Singh in a petition filed by him.
The entire sordid affair shows how military authorities do not bat an eyelid in falsely implicating anyone who do not toe their line. It also goes to show that there is complete and utter disregard of rank or decoration or professional competence when anyone is framed with full backing of the "system".
More sadly, the Air Force authorities did not even care for the reputation of an officer's wife and her husband, a Wing Commander, before falsely implicating her with the Air Commodore. No senior officer through the chain of command cared to interfere in this blatant misuse of power, not even the AFT, and it was only the civilian justice system which ultimately came to the aid of the beleaguered officer. In fact, the less said about the conduct of the AFT bench of Gauhati the better. Serious questions should be raised about the impartiality of certain AFT members and the manner in which they go about dispensing justice, or rather, denying justice.
Air Commodore Mrigendra Singh's case is a stark reminder to all and sundry that there has to be close check kept on the actions of senior officers who try to muzzle the voice of honest and upright officers. This officer played by the book, did not leak his story to the media and expected justice from his brother officers in uniform, but he got nothing. It is a sad day for any service when honest men are castigated while the dishonest reap the benefits of greed.
complete system is based on sycophancy in three services...what our elders did to gora sahibs pre independence current lots of Sahibs are doing the same and expecting all subordinates to bend backwards
ReplyDeleteThank you Navedeep for sharing this collosal Betrayal of Faith by the IAF autorities against an officer, who abided by the rules.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Sunder
And we boast of justice in the Armed forces. Sad state of affairs..
ReplyDeleteThis AFT business need to be scrapped. In one AFT ex MGO who wad raided by CBI on last in office speaks volumes about these AFTs.It has become a place for giving re employment to pliable people.
ReplyDeleteTell me who has not heard of MES contractors fitting latest "technology" in official residence and personal bungalows. Official vehicles plying with stolen curtain & tiles etc And the 23 years I have worked Officers Mess has become such a black hole for stealing from Food to tooth paste to curtains to Furniture.
ReplyDeleteWow ! See the power of Anonymous Letters. If you hold any grudge against anyone in Military ,simply put an anonymous letter.Well, on one hand there is navy that's trying to save its collar by denying allegations by a naval officer's wife of being sexually exploited & here is Indian Air Force falsely accusing & ruining lives based on Anonymous Letters !!
ReplyDeleteTrue story and many other facts are not added in this blog but if u add those then the complete faith of common man on the armed forces will be lost because during the enquiry the authorities crossed all limits of inhumanity and harassed many innocent for their personal vendetta but it was air commodore singh who still kept a faith in the judicial system and dint give up otherwise all efforts to kill him either career wise and mentally were made by these inhuman authorities, this was not the single case appealed in court but many subsequential cases were also filed against the same inhuman authorities by various people due to being forced and threatened to depose false witnesses against air comodore. I m the eye witness of the entire proceedings
ReplyDeleteIn fact ,the ones who helped conceive this conspiracy were all awarded handsomely. one becomes NDA Commandant, the main conspirator receives CAS Commendation for devotion to duty and one is awarded a PVSM post retirement. Talk of sycophancy and towing the line in forces. Open Rape of the military traditions.
ReplyDeleteIt is all the game of power play. They all are enjoying the immunity under the indian constitution and so misusing the power. And this poor air commodore may be in gross loss of his future in the service. The MOD must intervene and order an enquiry by CBI immediately in this corruption case.
DeleteIf AFT possesses so much power how could it make such an obvious, biased decision !
ReplyDeleteGod save the man who tells the truth!
ReplyDeleteCBI may like to investigate the properties held by Very senior officers.
ReplyDeleteA Very Upcoming Officer whose reputation is being tarnished by those who are not used to Honest Practices. God only can save the Nation.
ReplyDeleteInspite of the fact that Honourable High Court has proved the fact that IAF personnel misused & abused their powers & resorted to telling palpable lies,IAF is still trying to protect them. If indeed the IAF story was true , cud the Indian Air Force machinery not prove it to judiciary??Shame on IAF & its Chief..
ReplyDeleteIf such type of malafide activities can be initiated against an officer of high rank than one can imagine what might happen with those who are holding the posts of copl. & srgnt. This is not for the 1st time happen in IAF, so its time to take some strict actions against such type of wrong complaints and I think Human Right's Commission should interfere in this.
ReplyDeleteYes Mr Ajay
DeleteIts time for the HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS TO HOLD A CENSUS OF CENSUS OF JUDGMENTS HELD by the different armed forces tribunals and the court martials in the tri services and make an analysis of the judgments and expose the arbitrary proceedings and judgments and send a report to the national human rights commission.
Its an irony that the IAF says that its officers are selected after testing their psychology for five complete days. What integrity is checked in the ssb interviews? is it towards the rules and regulations of the service and the constitution of india? or the integrity towards big sahib who himself is corrupt? The time has come to go for a major overhaulin of the complete selection procedure because time and again it has been evident that the big officers have been found involved in corruption cases. In case of a civilian media makes trials but these defence organisations are hiding behind the immunity from the media in the name of the national security. As far as the judicial system is concerned in this case, it is quite clear that the justice does not prevail for armed forces personnel upto the tribunals. One cannot get justice without knocking the door of high court or the supreme court. who are in the tribunals? They all are retired officers who are biased against the accused, specially in the case when the accuse is a jawan. he has harrased the jawan whole life and got one more opportunity to harass him. if a census of all the judgments of armed forces tribunals is done it will be cleared that it take advantage of the economic condition of the accuse jawan and gives judgement against him. Where are the so called human rights activists? Don't they think of the human rights of the lady named in the case of this air commodore? Don't they think of the human rights of the jawans? Perhaps this may not give human rights organisations wide publicity which may be the reason for turning their eyes towards these. If it can happen with an air commodore one can imagine the level of dictatorship with a jawan. This air commodre may have sufficient money to pay to lawyers so he got justice. But an aam jawan may not have money to fight for justice.
ReplyDeletei just have one question. Did not the call records of Air Cmde Mrigendra Singh and this lady in question show that they were talking and exchanging SMSes even late night, even when her husband was out of town?
ReplyDeleteWhat time is late night in fauj ?? In which book of law is communication a crime ?? Who knows who was talking to whom??Were der no calls wen husband was home..?? Raise ur mental level a bit..
DeleteAnd you are sooooo concerned on NEW YEARS DAY !! Good u had only one question that ruined ur evening..Check the mobiles of ur family members n c ...how they react... well Others are havin thousand questions dat need to be answered..
DeleteSeems that this person is a member of a khap panchayat who wants to object. These are the kind of people who would support Talwars killing their own daughter for the alleged issue. He would support killing of young girls and boys for marrying outside gotra. And his cheap upbringing and poor atmosphere that he has been brought up by his mom has made him think cheaply about a non existent issue. such people are danger to society as their minds are like the rapists who only imagine what their cheap upbringing makes them believe.
DeleteI think right to privacy is guaranteed by the constitution of India which can not be abrogated by any authority without the due process of law. Now the question arises as to how did you know that they were in contact as such immorally? Have you ever assessed their call records or have they themselves told you of such contacts or are you merely speculating? If you are merely speculating, just imaging if somebody speculates about you with some other lady and brings in public domain? before saying such things on public forum we must keep ourselves at that place and then think of the mental agony through which the effected person may go through.
DeleteMilitary and its systems should be audited every year and have an oversight just the CAG that looks at everything as it is one one of the highest consumers of GDP. This include manpower health, equipment health and strategic health. This should be a division strength and managed by a combine of political, bureaucracy and military with statutory powers.
ReplyDeleteNow that a chief minister has been jailed for defamation, would these conspirators also be put behind bars for their act of defamation. With a strong judiciary and an honest govt at centre I think these conspirators must be running scared. Satyamev jayate
ReplyDeleteI think Sunder Rajan and Navdeep sir are advocates, is anybody of them going to file a PIL in the supereme court of India as to the promotion and appointments of the persons against whom honourable high court of guwahati have catagorically said that they have misused their power and abused their position to harass an officer placed below him. I put a question to both of u as to can a good advocate keep silence when he is seeing that such persons are given power of sovereign function and responsibility of thousands of people of air force under them? One of them have been promoted to the rank of AOC -in-C of Central Air Command. Can u challange his appointment?
ReplyDeleteIf the Ruling of the Lower Court is overturned does the Presiding Judge of the Lower Court lose his Job??!! This just a another day in the Court. ................ The Station Commander had strong views, was not appreciated, got into a tiff, was shown the door and came back through the side door .............. He can now at best fly for Air India while the Air Force has in no uncertain terms told him he cannot "fly" with them. .................... As for the minor infractions etc ............ The process within the system itself is the punishment and it may not have anything to do with the real issue at Hand !!! It is just another day in Puritan India have a good Laugh and move on, nothing is meant to change, will change or can change !!
ReplyDelete